Judge: Wildlife in Need should keep license

Tim Stark, the director of Wildlife in Need, will be allowed to keep his federal exhibitor's license despite the U.S. Department of Agriculture's year-long effort to revoke it.

In a recently posted decision, an administrative law judge ruled that the USDA failed to show that Stark was unfit to hold an Animal Welfare Act exhibitor's license. The USDA has 35 days after the filing to appeal the judge's decision.

The decision comes a week after dozens of animals died in a barn fire at the Charlestown, Ind., site. Stark has said those animals were not USDA regulated species.

Feds seek answers in Wildlife in Need fire

Kevin Shea, the federal administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, filed a motion in February 2015 to revoke the license, saying that because Stark pleaded guilty to the Endangered Species Act in 2008, he's unfit to exhibit the animals. Shea's motion also said Stark holding a license would be contrary to the act's purpose "because respondent has been found to have harmed the animals in his custody."

Stark has faced several violations from the USDA after repeated inspections of the facility.

The judgment said the USDA failed to show that Stark is unfit to hold an Animal Welfare Act license "for a conviction pertaining to the transfer of an animal protected by the Endangered Species Act more than 10 years ago."

According to the judgment, Stark's counsel maintained – and Administrative Law Judge Janice Bullard agreed – that the USDA renewed Stark's exhibitor's license in 2014 after he violated the Endangered Species Act.

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Bullard also discounted the USDA's inspection reports of Wildlife in Need and non-compliances of the Animal Welfare Act.

"In addition, samples of inspections of (Stark's) facility conducted by APHIS over several years did not disclose that animals were harmed by (Stark)," the judgment states.

A spokesperson for the USDA said Wednesday, "We are currently reviewing the decision and determining our next steps."

Stark could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.

Reporter Lexy Gross can be reached at (502) 582-4087 or via email at lgross@courier-journal.com. Like the Courier-Journal's Indiana Facebook page for more regional news at www.facebook.com/cjindiana/.